Sprint’s LTE Plus Network Achieves Best-Ever Performance in Cities Across the Country

By Dr. John Saw, Chief Technology Officer, Sprint

February 22, 2017

Independent mobile analytics firm RootMetrics® has just released its US Mobile Network Performance report for second half 2016, providing a comprehensive look at how the top four national carriers are performing.

We’re excited to have achieved our best-ever performance in cities across the country, setting a new Sprint company record for highest number of Metro RootScore awards to-date. We’re pleased to rank #2 nationally in Call performance, rank #2 in a tie nationally for Text performance, and hold a competitive position in Overall performance. In addition we made significant progress as most improved in State RootScore awards, and we had the second-largest gain over first half 2016 testing by any carrier in Metro area testing.

Most Improved in State Awards
In the past six months, Sprint had the highest increase in first or shared first place RootScore® State Awards, receiving Reliability, Call, and Text Awards, increasing by more than 200 percent (from 11 to 34) in the 50 States measured.Most Metro Awards in Company History
Additionally, Sprint achieved a company record of 246 first-place (outright or shared) Metropolitan area RootScore awards for overall performance, reliability, speed, data, call, or text. This is a nearly 50 percent increase in total awards compared to the prior testing period. And it was the second-largest gain (just behind Verizon) compared to first half 2016 testing by any carrier in metro area testing.#3 Nationally in Overall Performance
Sprint maintains its third-place ranking in Overall network performance in the U.S., outpacing T-Mobile once again. And we will continue to close the gap with the competition as we focus on executing our Densification and Optimization plan while rolling out new capabilities such as High Performance User Equipment (HPUE) and expanding three-channel carrier aggregation on our LTE Plus network. #2 Nationally In Call Performance & Most Metro RootScore Call Awards
For a fourth consecutive time, Sprint ranks second nationally in Call network performance. And for the first time ever, Sprint achieved more metro Call RootScore awards than Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. In addition, Sprint achieved a company record 20 first-place (outright or shared) RootScore State Awards for Call Performance.

According to RootMetrics, Sprint’s call reliability was “outstanding.” Sprint achieved an Excellent rating for blocked call reliability in all 125 markets tested, and achieved an Excellent rating for dropped call reliability in 122 of the 125 markets visited.

We’re particularly pleased with this call performance ranking because we know it’s one of the most important drivers of customer satisfaction. While differences in speed (for example, 10 Mbps vs 20 Mbps) is not noticeable to most customers, a dropped or blocked call certainly is.

#2 Nationally in Text
Sprint improved its national Text network performance ranking, moving up from a third-place rank in 1H16 to now tie for second with AT&T.

As I’ve said in the past, we love to win awards, but one carrier “winning” doesn’t mean another carrier is losing. What the other carriers don’t want customers to know, is that all networks now offer a great experience with a difference in performance that is small. The difference in capacity and long-term capability though is huge (as well as the value Sprint offers its customers).

We have exciting plans for this year and beyond. Our top priority is to ensure a great customer experience by adding more coverage and capacity where it’s needed. We’re working to replicate in other cities the strong results RootMetrics reported following our deployment of small cells in Manhattan. And we’ll expand our toolbox with other solutions such as four-channel carrier aggregation, higher order and Massive MIMO, 256 QAM, and High Performance User Equipment. We’ll also be the first U.S. carrier to publicly demonstrate Gbps-class TDD-LTE performance and massive MIMO using 64 transmitters 64 receivers, both showcasing the incredible capacity of our 2.5 GHz spectrum.

With a network that is performing at best-ever levels, more spectrum capacity than any other carrier, and exciting new capabilities on the way, there’s never been a better time to give Sprint a try.

- John

Rankings based on RootMetrics US National, 50 State, & 125 Metro RootScore Reports (1H and 2H 2016) for mobile performance as tested on best available plans and devices on 4 mobile networks across all available network types. Your experience may vary. The RootMetrics awards are not an endorsement of Sprint. Visit www.rootmetrics.com.

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